Carson Cooman (b.1982) should be very familiar to Fanfare readers, as he is one of our critics, and I find his writings consistently lucid and informative. He is also arguably one of the most prolific composers living; the works on this collection cover seven years (2003-10), and go from opus numbers 503 to 897. You do the math.

As I have said before, perhaps the greatest miracle of Cooman’s art so far is that, despite this unremitting rate of production, each piece sounds quite fully formed and polished, doesn’t fall back on cliché, and strives for real expressive connection with the listener. His aesthetic is largely conservative, but depending on context, he can explore more modernist and progressive avenues. Cooman is both an organist and choir director in Boston/Cambridge, and the majority of these a cappella pieces were written as gifts for various friends, often on celebrations such as births and weddings, or as tributes. So most have an occasional feel, lovely offerings designed to bring warmth and pleasure to the recipients. They are resolutely tonal, always impeccable in their projection of text, and show a complete understanding of the rich balance between harmonic and contrapuntal elements.

A few recurrent personal traits color this music, even at its most “traditional.” I hear a substratum of neo-medievalism in some pieces, especially the opening Ad majorem Dei gloriam, in which I hear vestiges of organum. In The Welcome News (the title track of the disc), the more clearly visible source is American “Sacred Harp” singing (otherwise known as “shape note,” with roots going back to William Billings of Cooman’s Boston). This creates wonderful, bare harmonies that are tonal and yet unfamiliar (and links Cooman to contemporary composers such as William Duckworth and Neely Bruce).

Cooman also is able to focus in on one line of text or a single primal progression and spin out a development from it. When this happens, the results can be thrilling, such as the setting of the concluding line “a rose tree blossoms in deepest night” from The Rose Tree Carol, or the opening of One Thing. But the climax of the program comes at the end, with O Lord, I Will Sing of Your Love Forever, an anthem written in celebration of the 325th anniversary of King’s Chapel, Boston. Using a series of Biblical texts referring to kingship—of a religious nature—it is the longest work on the program, and the most ambitious. It has a recurrent Alleluia whose harmonic progression strikes me as very original, almost wrenching. Unquestionably this piece is the payoff that certifies Cooman’s ambition to make a deep statement, beyond fulfilling professional obligations.

Cambridge Concordance under Grossman sings with fervor, good diction, and excellent intonation. This will be of greatest interest to those committed to American choral music, and is yet another piece in the growing portrait of a composer who’s something of a force of nature.